DeeperRoots Classical School

working the system

Systems for schooling at home seem to have an ebb and flow to their functionality. We try one fantastic way of doing things one year and then for one reason or another it is superseded by the next fantastic way of doing things. So this year I'm lovin' a small new part of our system that seems to have risen to the top.

These are our pencil bins. I know what your thinking, every school has those! Yep. But when all your supplies are commonly shared somehow this way of convenient organization seems a little over kill. I was wrong. This is sanity at it's finest, either with a class of 30 or just 4.

Inside they have minimal necessities but the ones that always get lost in the shuffle again and again. The older two received their own private set of excellent coloured pencils which they keep in pristine condition because they aren't at the mercy of "community usage" any longer. To that I added one good drawing pencil for art class. And for everyday writing they chose a mechanical pencil each with a different grip color. Knowing who's pencil is who's may seem like a small detail but it has saved many a days job of claiming a lost pencil's owner.

George is still using a classic Ticonderoga yellow #2 along with a new pack of crayons. Although I can see him making the coloured pencil leap before the year is through. Annika still enjoys the jumbo size and is quite effective at bringing every point down to a stubby nub of a crayon.

Unintentionally I purchased clear and easily stackable boxes. I have loved that aspect more then I thought. They are stored on a shelf among books so I decided to number the ends for quick-glance availability. It has made them a very fluid part of getting the tasks at hand finished smoothly.

 

Not to be out done, our binders got a face-lift this year as well. I wanted the visual aspects of organizing our work to be just as inspiring as the pages that would fill them. Clean and simple seems to have fit the bill. Nicholas' subjects are in black lettering and Peter's are in red. George and Annika each have one binder. In years past I haven't started the binder system till grade school but boy do they love collecting their creativity just as well!

They best part is it's all reusable for next year. And I do believe that this fantastic system might just have some staying power for years to come.

three letter words

My third and fourth child are learning to read! George has conquered three letter words and Annika is working her way through two sounds blended with a vowel. I have tried to get a more creative curriculum for reading, with pretty flashcards and cute poems, but I always seem to come back to the amazing job that this one book performs. We use Phonics Pathways. We do an ever so small amount each day because I learned the hard way that long time frames only add unnecessary frustration! So maybe its doing one page per day or maybe its just one row on that page but we simply progress. And by the end of the book you have a magnificent reader!

 

About a week ago a glorious day arrived in that process, the one where what had once been long lengths of sounding out individual letters metamorphosed into a connected strand suddenly becoming a cohesive unit! A little boy proudly spouting out words like - tug, dig, bed, and mat with the greatest of ease as he grins big and looks at his older brothers for winning approval. Ahh, let's just delight in the accomplishment of something, anything really, before we lament over the other quizzes, reviews, and tests that somehow failed to bring a grin. Oh, at least kindergarten can revel in its delight!

 

 

so cheesy

"We forgot the cheese Grommit, we forgot the cheese!"

Anytime anyone mentions cheese in our home this line inevitably makes its appearance in some part of the conversation. If you are not a Wallace & Grommit fan than you unfortunately cannot hear the distinct inflections this quote makes and the british accent that accompanies it. However, if you are familiar with such phrases than you can only picture what a splendid time we had on our last educational field trip. That's right...to a cheese factory. Actually, what many would consider not just "a" but thee cheese factory, Tillamook.

{sorting}

I can't say that I'm all that fond of mathematics. I know that it is an essential part of life and has probably been the bedrock of upper education that has brought about so many of the things that make modern what it is today. Even so, I am still a literature-history-art kinda girl. But I do aim at picking at the brains of my young-ins just in case they are a bit more bent towards this topic of study than their teacher.

All that said, Kindergarten mathematics is just plain fun. We use an excellent program from Singapore. I enjoy how colorful it is and how it uses the workbook as more of a platform for hands-on play. George particularly got a kick out of a day dedicated to sorting. As a teacher sometimes its hard to see where the easy stuff is going. Is this really a necessary skill? Isn't sorting pretty common knowledge that gets picked up anyway? Well, yes and no. It's amazing how much sorting goes on in other areas. It gets new fancier names like classifying or organizing your thoughts, formulas, or writings. But it all starts in the fun that's created when you pull out a drawer full of children's dishware and say, lets sort it!

music to my ears

Art classes and music classes have always seemed to be an elusive element in our school days. It tends to be like the family time that is always scheduled over or the personal time that get swallowed up into needful household chores. And as good advisers will tell you, put these things on the calendar and make them as much of a priority as going to the dentist! So this year I scheduled in art and music. It's just one hour in every week but it doesn't (and won't) get over run by other subjects that have for one reason or another lagged behind. We have gone three straight weeks now saying, "no grammar you must go away now" or "enough math, we will deal with rounded decimals and mixed fractions later"! I have been very pleased with the results.

Yesterday was music class. I decided that all the kiddos need to brush up on their music appreciation so we are studying the orchestra. We are beginning with The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and then will go on to use The Story of the Orchestra. Both are superb books, accompanied with a CD recording which just wouldn't be the same if not heard - obviously.

When I was in grade school we regularly visited the symphony orchestra. I remember so vividly the plush velvet seat and the glittering chandeliers. Standing in that enormous hall, dressed in my favorite dress and wearing patent leather shoes it was quite a magical place. But nothing was as beautiful as the sounds. I often remember going with my grandparents and watching as they closed their eyes when the music played. The first time I tried that the orchestra went to a whole new level of sensory emotion, one to which a simple recording on a ipod could not nearly embody it's great fullness. That's why I hope to take my children, all dressed in there best of looks, to the symphony orchestra after this music class has commenced. And then, and only then, will true music appreciation be caught rather than only taught. 

In the meantime, I delight in what has already turned out to be a very good thing. Here is my homegrown orchestra - George the Conductor, Peter the Flutist, Annika the Percussionist, and Nicholas {well in true form, my photographer}. Oh, and the orchestra itself all played by our dearly loved friends of the stuffed variety.

observe

Doing a bit of sketching today. The world is full of inspiring still-life right now. Today it was nature right outside our door. Observation is instantly caught when trying to draw something real. I love the way you can discover new features about the simple things you look at everyday yet often missing its beauty. Leaves are an important part of the beauty this season. This morning was the first morning that I looked out my window to find the concrete parts of my view sprinkled with the tree's lovely colors fallen from their lofty places. I enjoy the imperfections that wind in autumn creates, especially for an {sub}urban setting trying it's best to maintain order. It makes me giggle with a sinister grin.

order my day

I'm so fickle when it comes to technology. Some days I simply hate it and definitely don't want myself or any member of the family to be self-consumed under it's rapturous power; and then other days when it has been successfully reigned into a tool it lets life be more of where I am actual aiming. I am quite sure my children are just as frustrated with my Jekyll and Hyde personality.

Facing the facts we all know that any good thing has its vices. But when good is really good, well, its a wonderful thing. Mid-summer I discovered a great app for my ipad. I was searching the endless "aisles" in the education category and happened upon an intriguing idea. What if I could schedule all of my lesson plans on this handy device? And that was just what it has since accomplished. I spent the last month of our summer break entering lessons for every grade, every subject, and every day - all the way till June 2011. Oh, how sweet. Oh, the pure bliss. I love organizing but this was a whole new dimension, literally. In previous years I have produced a schedule for a semester, at best. Ah, the motivation of new technology. See what I mean? Do I hate it, or love it!

For two weeks now we have all benefitted from its friendly format. Nicholas is over-the-top motivated to click a little checkmark on the screen that announces he has finished that particular assignment. And an added plus is that my children actually want to look for themselves at what it is they need to learn for the day and in what hours of the day it is to be reasonably completed! Can you say, happy teacher! My husband has especially enjoyed having our evenings free to gaze into each others eyes instead of constantly reworking the lessons for tomorrow's pupils. {Or at least we gaze at a movie together...darn that technology again!}

App available for iphone and ipad

iStudiez Pro

after the rest

A week can either make or brake something new. It's enough time to test certain things and observe whether or not you've made the necessary preparations for whatever it is that you're filling the hours. And then after that week comes some rest - one day or maybe two. In this case it was a week, Monday thru Friday, and a restful weekend, Saturday and Sunday. The crucial moment of a new plan is that first day back from rest. What was God thinking on the eight day? Since all he made was good I have to assume that he enjoyed going "back to work" after the Sabbath rest.

As did we. This was our second Monday of formal education. The kind you sit at the chair, feet flat on the floor, and work at learning whatever it is that that big book is trying to convey. I look on this year with a satisfying description. I believe it to be a healthy one. And in health comes growth, and by growth comes a thing that is flourishing. Yes, I do declare I want to stamp our journey in educational instruction to be a healthy, growing, flourishing thing. And subsequently I trust that my description of all peoples involved in such a journey will bear those very descriptions as well.

Annika An ~ Preschool  

George ~ Kindergarten

Peter Lawrence ~ 3rd Grade

Nicholas ~ 6th Grade

 

DeeperRoots Classical School ~ 2010-2011

beans

This is a pile of beans. Yes, that's obvious. However, what isn't revealed in a simple bag for .99 cents is the hours of preschool play contained therein. I've always wanted to try this form of learning. For many years I have admired, albeit from a distance, some of the philosophies of Maria Montessori. The texture of beans was to say the least, a very profitable venture.

These two kiddos had a unquenchable curiosity. The days of endless time spent with hands and feet and toys and cups submerged in beans was really is quite amazing. We all took turns pouring waterfalls into plastic buckets. And also picking up many a black and white bean from amongst the rug and floor beyond.

animalis - 'having breath'

Science is an interesting subject. We live all around the effects of it and yet it really is a upper level subject at it's heart. So as instructors we try and break it down to its elementary ideas. Which I find, either peeks your interests further or causes the feeling of "yeah, OK, let's move on". While I was one inclined to speak forth the latter, my children have taken on an attitude of the former. Which means that reality of this subject as part of our schooling experience lies in it's ability to present itself on 3 levels - 1. simple 2. scheduled 3. extremely interesting. We seem to have found just that.

Peter started out his year going through the animal encyclopedia and making a list of those species that were fascinating to his senses. Said list:

 

Once a week we run down the list alphabetically and see where it takes us. This particular day we are studying a two page spread on Bees and Wasps & Beetles.

There is a small box at the bottom of every subject, virtually unnoticed when Nicholas and I ventured through this book, that takes us on an exploration into arrangement of how that animal relates to other parts of the known animalis world.

 

Peter prefers narrating a comparison of two animal types, although I have also asked questions relating to what the student remembers or found particularly interesting about the topic. You can tell from the second half of this weeks narration that it was indeed a rousing time in science class, and then some.

We were finding that we also wanted a reference as to why certain categories had been formed within the animal kingdom, so our handy charts were formed. I love visual enhancements, they're simple(point #1) yet extremely effective. Once an animal has been studied it goes up on the wall.

 

Usually we then illustrate something that helps us remember a harder concept or diagram. Science is full of diagrams! Something to this effect:

This was one of my favorites so far, drawn of our day studying crabs and lobsters. Please notice the attention to detail in arrowing the sand. All in the nature of scientific diagrams, I'm sure!

 

All of this is then 3-hole-punched and neatly stored in Peter's personal portfolio of biology.

 

Biology in 2nd grade is very easy and fun. It also corresponds beautifully with ancient history. We start with the study of animals, moving on to the human body around mid-year, and then finishing up with plants in the spring by the backyard addition of a home garden. Of course, we might have to rearrange a few things since I do believe we will be finishing school in July! Let's not forget we began this year by taking a very large field trip to China and then followed that by welcoming two toddlers underfoot instead of one! All the more reasons to have a subject in the wings every week that is simple, scheduled, and extremely interesting - for everyone!